Spain attacker showed ‘no sign of radicalisation’ – father

Residents of Melouiya, a village high in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, are in shock at the news two of their sons were implicated in terror attacks in Spain.

A traditional tent set up on a rocky patch of ground near the rough stone house of the Oukabir family, originally intended for a wedding reception, has been turned into a funeral tent.Spanish policemen accompany clients of a store outside a cordoned off off area after a van ploughed into the crowd, killing 13 persons and injuring over 80 on the Rambla in Barcelona on August 17, 2017.A driver deliberately rammed a van into a crowd on Barcelona’s most popular street on August 17, 2017 killing at least 13 people before fleeing to a nearby bar, police said.Officers in Spain’s second-largest city said the ramming on Las Ramblas was a “terrorist attack”. / AFP PHOTO / LLUIS GENE

“Joy has given way to sadness and pain,” said Abderrahim, in his forties, an uncle of the Oukabir brothers.

Driss Oukabir, 27, was arrested in the Spanish town of Ripoll on Thursday just hours after a van sped into crowds on the busy Las Ramblas avenue in central Barcelona, leaving 13 people dead.

His brother Moussa, 17, was one of five “suspected terrorists” shot dead after knocking down pedestrians in the Catalan seaside resort of Cambrils in a second attack in the early hours of Friday.

“We are in shock, completely distraught”, said the father of the two young men, Said, with tears in his eyes.

With an athletic build and a baseball cap on his head, he was surrounded by family members, neighbours and friends who had come to offer their condolences.

“Spanish police called Moussa’s mother who is in Spain to tell her that he was dead,” he told AFP shortly before the official announcement by police on Friday night.

“They lived like the young people of their age, dressed like them,” said their father, who was called in by Moroccan police early on Saturday.

“Moussa was a nice boy who didn’t hurt anyone.

“He was attending classes and was going to take his high school exams next year. He recently started praying… but it stopped there.”

He said the young man, who has three sisters, had “doubtless” been manipulated.

A cousin said Moussa “loved playing football, having a good time, chatting up girls”.

He travelled to Morocco almost every year for the summer holidays and was expected back last Tuesday, the cousin said.

“The last few months, he started to become interested in religion. He used to go to a mosque in Ripoll. Maybe that’s where he was brainwashed,” he said, adding that the brothers’ parents had recently divorced.

Their father said that Driss, the older brother, had “left school early to work honestly and earn a living”.

“Today he is between the hands of God and the police. He is under investigation. I hope they will say he’s innocent. I don’t want to lose both my sons.”